Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I was very clear when envisioning the goal and substance of this site that I didn’t want it to be one of those, “here’s what I’m up to” blogs. But with the offseason upon all of us, and nothing to write about save for meaningless Terrelle Pryor speculation, I thought I would go ahead say here’s what I’m up to. (Plus, you gotta love any sentence that ends with two prepositions.)

The knee is quite literally kicking ass. I can bend it far enough to touch heel to butt, which feels far more liberating than it probably should. I am walking without a limp and able to go up and down stairs with ease which is even more liberating as I live on the third floor. The weather in Chicago has been so lousy this winter, perhaps I picked the best time to be incarcerated by the healing process, anyway. In sum, I’m ahead of schedule and fully expect to be running around again in six months (if all continues to go well, knockonwood, yaddayaddayadda). In the end, all I’ll have to show for this is a few small scars and significant medical bills.

These friends didn't recognize me (even before all those beers)

The beard is coming along nicely. It wasn’t supposed to get this far. I had a milestone set up for myself and figured it would be hit at least two weeks ago. I’ve yet to hit it. But I do keep plugging away at the book. It’s quite a process. Stew wasn’t kidding. Ideally, I’ll be getting rid of this thing by this weekend. The irony is that I have been writing about the Smoky Mountains and I am starting to resemble one of the Oak Ridge Boys.

The Oak Ridge Boys. Just 'cause.

If any football developments or travel-related news arise, you can expect me to weigh in on it here. I will likely put out a few more thoughts and musings on the past season. The only real story: Everyone can’t wait for next season – even the good folks in South Bend. In the meanwhile, the sister-blog, Fighting the Youth, is up and running with at least a couple postings every week. The topics are wholly different, but hey it’s the offseason. Aside from Orson's Fulmer Cup updates, there's not much to read anyway.

On The Mend

Hi everybody! As promised, the new ACL is firmly in place. At least it feels like it is. Honestly, I don’t know how I could tell if something had gone wrong, but it certainly seems like the joint has been improved. I also got a nice dose of microfracture surgery as well. Let’s home I'm more Amare Stoudemire than Chris Webber. It’s now been nearly three weeks since the surgery, and it is amazing how every day I awake with obvious improvements. I can’t wait for each new morning because I know it’s going to be that much better.

Dr. Nick is not my doctor

But I highly recommend everyone avoid this predicament if at all possible. Arthroscopic knee surgery isn’t nearly as fun as it sounds. Fortunately, in the immediate aftermath, my parents offered me my old room and plenty of nurturing. Mom’s an excellent cook, so I ate far better than I deserved. And I didn’t have to worry about very much. But it wasn’t exactly the best week of my life. I grew a bit stir crazy. Seriously, it’s my old room – from high school. Plus, the knee didn’t feel too good. It had swollen to the size of a ripe cantaloupe, and even getting out of bed was a big chore.

The peak of discomfort came Sunday night at two in the morning. Despite being on narcotics for the pain, the top half of my shin somehow managed to throb, stab, ache and burn all at once. It felt as though it was not made of bone, but carved directly from pain itself. I have never felt anything remotely as painful as this, nor do I ever hope to again. But that is behind me and the pain is minimal at this point. I'm off crutches and can even climb stairs. The overarching lesson here is that I don't ever want to go through this again. I hereby pledge to keep these limbs in shape and stretch them before any future athletic contests.

Speaking of which, I’m back at Athletico, doing my kneehab. For three weeks in, they say I’m doing great and I plan to keep working my tail off to stay ahead of the curve. My overarching goal is to dunk. That’s technically not something I’ve done before – a football once, but everyone knows that doesn’t count. As long as I can conquer my own impatience, I am certain of a full recovery.

When not doing leg raises and heel slides (don’t ask), I spend my time working on the book. In advice-seeking e-mails with SI.com's Stewart Mandel back when I first quit work, he told me, “It’s quite a process.” The implication of that statement was surely, “Are you sure you know what you’re getting yourself into?” I didn’t. In some ways I still don’t. It’s the most daunting challenge I’ve ever faced. Some days are unnervingly devoid of progress, but the ones where the prose flows are incredibly rewarding. At the rate I’m going, you will be able to read the final tome just in time for the 2114 season.

Not an authentic mugshot

I’ve grown a “playoff beard” of sorts which is going to remain until I reach certain self-imposed milestones. It’s scraggly and unattractive, but that’s part of the point. Still, the Chicago Tribune claims that beards are making a comeback. So maybe I’m hip for the first time in my life. People ask me what the book’s going to be called. For now, the working title is something I heard a USC fan emphatically tell her friends a couple hours before kickoff: “I’m so drunk!” It’s got a nice ring to it, no?

Finally, thanks for all the well-wishing from friends over the past few weeks. It's meant a lot to me and made the boredom of being laid up that much easier. Hopefully I'll be leaping tall buildings before you know it.

The Song About the Sweet Lovin' Woman

For anyone who’s been along for the ride from the very start, you may recall back in August reading about the unfortunate meeting of my knee and momentum’s sudden change. While I can recall the immediate pain of that moment and all the laments about fate sticking its thumb in my eye, I easily forget how close this trip came to never happening. For about a week, the entire endeavor hung in the balance. Thanks to a non-disastrous diagnosis and a lot of hard work at Athletico, I was hardly even limping when I rolled into South Bend.

This is a day I’ve been looking to with equal parts eagerness and dread for the last five months. I am not nervous about the procedure itself, for I have a capable and talented doctor ready to work his modern medicinal magic. However, the aftermath causes me great anxiety. I have no option but to deal with it. I have already put in countless hours of physical therapy every day since the injury occurred. The “kneehab” that lies ahead will be slower and surely more painful than the previous experience. It’s not something to be feared, but it is where the dread comes in. It is perhaps fitting that for the first time since mid-November, the knee has been hurting over the last few days. Maybe it knows what’s about to happen and is sounding its last yelp of independence.

Over the course of seventeen hard-hitting football games, I saw my fair share of injuries. Some of the players went down with bad knee sprains or perhaps worse. It’s so hard to tell when you’re watching a game live. Needless to say, I felt a sort of kinship with those kids in their moments of agony. They didn’t know of me, and had no idea the empathy I felt when they fell. But it was there nonetheless. I also had the good fortune of meeting dozens of regular Joes like me all across the country who’ve gone through this same experience and come out on the other side good as new. Today, I think of their encouragement more than anything else. While I know this will be painful, arduous, and perhaps even emotionally trying, I am sick of having a busted knee. I want to run again. Even a few steps would be exciting. This is the only way to do it.

I had the mixed fortune of stumbling across a video of one of these operations on Youtube. I provide the link here for those of you who are less squeamish. I really wish I would have waited to watch this until after I was finished. Click here if you’re up for it (not safe for lunchtime). Here’s a much longer one with way more information, and they actually digress to college football at some point.

Obviously the blog will take a hiatus for at least a week or two, but thanks to everyone who’s been wishing me luck lately. And thanks to all the folks, young and old who have shared their success stories with me. I’d like to claim that I’ll be thinking of you as they cut and yank and drill and fasten, but I clearly won’t be thinking of anything. That’s for the best, to be sure. With any luck, by next fall you can toss me a pass on a deep post pattern. I can’t wait.